Recent reviews by Ascate

Verdict: It is quite an enjoyable game pushed to recommended by an excellent setting. Get it on sale if you want a made-up story from the Roman Empire.

Positives
+ Steam achievements (70 - requires 2 playthroughs, hardest difficulty, Iron Man active, combat deaths active and 10 require DLC)
+ Steam trading cards (8 to make a badge)
+ You will see a lot of historical figures (Caesar, Cicero, Cotta, Mithridates, Pompeius etc.)
+ Well done Rome turn-based RPG with elements of strategy
+ Quite an enjoyable story of revenge and political machinations, although it is quite basic with a lot of 'But .. Why?!' moments
+ A lot of armours with several different themes (Rome, Greece, Egypt and Galia)
+ It really shows there was a lot of research done
+ Your party members are each unique in their values and how they want things to be approached
+ Random events are quite nice, but once you do them all you are going to see 1-2 on a loop
+ Classes feel different
+ A lot of active and passive skills
+ Legendary weapons and armour have unique effects
+ 4 endings
+ 4 companions + 1 optional
+ 4 classes (Princeps, Veles, Sagittarius, Triarius) + 1 from DLC (Gladiator)
+ Each class has 3 unique skill trees

Negatives
- Crafting of equipment is RNG-based - all weapons and armour have a range of bonuses
- The strategic part is not the strongest
- Siege battles are more annoying than anything else and enemies know where you aim catapults
- The characters of your pretorians and companions seem like a needless addition
- combat gets quite repetitive after Act 1
- Inventory management is a pain in the ass honestly and there are too many stats that you don't feel like they have an effect on anything
- Conquering new regions was not exactly as fun as it boiled to - picking the best cards, replenishing soldiers, doing a side mission, repeat
- The story drops the ball after Act 2 and somehow loses a grip
- No zoom-out function and command queue on the overworld map
- An incredible amount of waiting (injuries, enemy turns, no automatic loot after battles ...)
- You don't see the effects of most things
- You cannot respec your characters which makes experimenting much harder

Verdict: It is 1 hour and 15 minutes of content for 11 euros. You get more enjoyment out of googling 'Trolley problem variants' and going through them that way.

+
Steam achievements (12)
The narrator is pretty good
A lot of trolley problems with references (over 50) and where to find them originally
It is nice to see your stats vs developers and global choices

-
No steam trading cards
Visual bugs if you play in windowed mode and the game goes to fullscreen even when that's off
No story to speak about
No ability to speed up the game even when you have already decided
Stats are not compared against your friends
Hardly a game, it is a binary choice simulator where your choices don't matter
You are constantly berated for your choices which gets boring fast
Twitch integration achievements
2 buggy achievements (100% and all items)
Not even a non-binary choice
I would appreciate some less serious situations included
No ability to pause the game even after playing through it
No real replay value besides being berated in a different way
A lot of problems have either wrong information, missing information or flat-out lie to you.

I waited for half a year just so it didn't look like I was jumping on the hate train to farm likes but, ultimately, all games come to a simple question - was it fun and did I enjoy my time with it? Sadly, the answer for Overwatch 2 is currently a resounding NO.


+ Positives +
Steam achievements (164, retroactive with Battle Net, require a lot of seasonal events hence it is a grind for at least a year)

Heroes are unique and their weapons feel differently

Arcane, events, QM, competitive, challenges ...

Game modes and maps are all fun in the core



- Negatives -
No steam trading cards even with purchases here

There is like 60% chance you will play as a fill player in QM, often receiving a loss you were not able to prevent (getting into the game in the last 20 seconds is quite common)

PAID Battle pass is filled with filler content - almost nobody uses Souvenirs and players usually use only 'spammable' voice lines.

Updates and balance changes are infrequent at best

I have seen a lot of shady plays in QM for multiple seasons in a row (snap-to-head headshots, tracking through walls ...) and it was disheartening to meet these same players for months in a row

The monetisation is incredibly greedy (2 different premium currencies for skins, seasonal battle passes, event battle passes, skins that are bonuses for seasonal purchases and more) - do you want that sweet Lilith Moira skin that was advertised in the trailer for Season 7? Well, you have to spend 40 euros for it and there is no other way to get it.

Reports are not addressed by actual people - if you are a fill you can get reported by 4 remaining people because you didn't play what they wanted you to play and it will automatically reduce your endorsement ranking and issue a warning. That is a fun experience in any game.

I was playing OW2 a lot during the first six seasons and I was trying to justify Blizzard asking for more and more every season while simultaneously offering less and less. It is a company that I once respected and loved and it pains me to see what they have become.

Overwatch 1 players were screwed over by Blizzard

'We were making OW2 because we wanted to introduce P2E campaign' simultaneously while it was cancelled for months - I am just unable to trust any promises connected to OW2 thanks to this

Verdict: One of the best local party games I have ever played. I had a blast while laughing at my incompetence in aiming even the most basic jumps ...

+
Steam trading cards (7 to make a badge)
Steam achievements (31, easy to farm)
Incredibly fun party game
4 game mods (Party, Creative, Challenge and Free Play)
Ability to upload and create your maps
4 players, possible to play locally, online, on the shared controller or multiple ones
There are a lot of items and traps to pick from
19 maps to pick from, all having a unique feeling

-
Max 4 players at once
Some quality-of-life improvements would be welcome (arrow if there is an unlock, menu to pick maps from ...)
This game could use Steam Workshop

Verdict: Get it on sale if you can get over repetitiveness and you are a fan of both lego and star wars.

+
Steam achievements (45, a lot of grind, about 80 hours to 100%)
All 9 episodes - 5 story missions with major event per 1 episode
A lot of side characters (380 with DLCs)
Planets feel different and a lot of care was put into making them
Options menu is on point
Character classes feel really unique
It's Star Wars

-
No steam trading cards
I had to restart the game several times due to game-breaking bugs
The game kept crashing to the desktop and sometimes even resetting the resolution
Repetitive in every aspect, you will see all the game has to offer in the first hour
No matter how hard they try, episodes 7-9 are just terrible
The majority of characters are reskins
DLCs offer reskins and some tidbits of lore, nothing more

Verdict: Lackluster and pointless.

+
Really cheap
Doesn't overstay its welcome (1-2 hours)
The new armor is pretty neat-looking
New boss fight

-
No new enemies
No new skills
No new weapons (pitchfork was in base game for enemies and has no skills associated with it)
The maximum level is still 50
Necessary to 100% achievements (6 new ones - 4 for collecting and 2 for story)
Deus Ex Boji - you are about to die, suddenly Boji saves you after being missing for 6 months - the whole premise
The story is not there - go to the arena, fight, lose, collect 3 things, go back, win
Recycled content - just with more sand
It adds nothing to the game's universe
The last boss stun-locked me for a full minute by spamming grenades, that was a fun experience

Verdict: On one hand the game is fun, on the other finding new collectibles and fighting the same enemies for 20 hours is beyond dull. Get it on sale if you are into action RPGs, stay away if you want something souls-like

+
Steam trading cards (7 drop, 13 to make a badge)
Steam achievements (52, 46 base game and 6 DLC, a lot of collecting things)
Visually beautiful
The landscape is gorgeous at times
Solid execution animations
A lot of work was put into the story and how you learn about the world
There was a lot of care put into the world
Armour sets and weapons are beautiful
Weapons feel different when it comes to their light, heavy and special attacks
Combat is not half-bad itself and you feel the weight of your weapons
Colour palettes for your armour are quite nice
Voice acting and soundtrack are enjoyable to listen to
The few bosses the game are well put together

-
Levelling is a lie - level up means 1 skill point and 1 new weapon blueprint drop from the first human enemy you encounter
90% of my deaths were due to falling into the abyss
Serious lack of enemy variety
I got stuck in loading several times after dying
The story is pretty much the most basic fantasy I have ever seen
The pacing is off - with exploration it took me 5 hours to meet the first boss and 2nd one was 5 minutes after him
I have no idea what is going on with the sounds as it sometimes plays combat queues including parry sound
The game uses 'increase X' without telling you what that means, hence making informative decisions impossible
Armours have armour/dodge stats, but once again without explanations
Story bits = stop and listen, you can either skip everything or wait for 5 minutes on a spot

No matter what settings I use the game just keeps crashing to the desktop every 5-20 minutes with RTX 4070.

Verdict: Incredibly underrated game. Pirate Outlaws is one of the best roguelike deck-builders on Steam and I have no issue recommending it because of that.

+
Steam achievements (124, a lot of time required)
A lot of different cards, curses and relics (654 cards, 48 curses and 233 relics)
For card game, there is a lot of customisation (different sub decks, bonuses etc.)
15 different heroes + 1 one that has 15 variations
Each hero has between 3 to 8 skins to unlock
Each character has a different playstyle and/or gimmick
3 game modes (Tavern Brawl, Arena and Navigate)
7 different biomes with unique themes
Solid soundtrack
Wide variety of bosses (4 to 10 per biome)
A lot of enemies that are easy to tell apart
Bounties with unique encounters and bosses
A lot of in-game events
Visually clean and very cohesive across the board
Hard mode that has a unique spin in every chapter
Very clean UI

-
No steam trading cards
Most quests are quite pointless as they only award reputation that is maxed at about 15 hours in any way.

Verdict: An amazing game that I have no issue recommending. I had a flarking blast from start to finish. STORM RIDERS!

+
Steam trading cards (10 to make a badge)
Steam achievements (59, one playthrough is enough)
An original story
Really fun gameplay loop
The humour hit home with me
Visually stunning
Killer soundtrack
A lot of costumes to unlock
Ability to replay any chapter
Solid enemy variety
Choices that matter at the end
Emotional moments are actually emotional
You will care about the characters
Fully customisable difficulty
STORM RIDERS

-
Skipping dialogue is messed up. it sometimes skips 1 word and sometimes 4 sentences.
I have encountered some bugs (T-pose, character model appearing where it shouldn't be and some minor stuck or NPC movement glitches)
Some things mess up your gallery if you look at them during replaying missions
The game becomes quite easy at the end with all abilities unlocked